Kids’ Online Habits and Hot Oatmeal

The online habits of children ages 6-11 reflect the continuing dramatic increase in online sales and the obvious necessity for businesses to have an online presence. Whether the business works with a small website design firm or one of the larger national firms such as Heritage Web Solutions, an online presence is a must for all businesses to be successful now and in the future.

Question: What does this have to do with “hot oatmeal”?

Answer: Parents’ purchasing is dramatically influenced by their children’s preferences. For example, prior to1906, breakfast cereals were almost exclusively hot cereals. Will Kellogg’s introduction of corn flakes has revolutionized breakfast. Thanks to clever marketing, parents are caught between caving into the “Cocoa Pebbles”, “Cocoa Puffs”, cocoa this and that or forcing their children to “eat your oatmeal, it’s good for you.” The children have won and the cold cereal industry enjoys enormous profits.

According to a new study from Experian Consumer Research, an overwhelming majority (89%) of all kids age 6-11 in the US spend at least some time doing online activities.

The Simmons Kids Fall 2007 Full Years Study found that because today's kids have grown up in the age of online communication, networking, the internet, cell phones, digital music and digital cable, they have had different childhood experiences compared with other generations. This makes them more likely to react differently than their older counterparts to advertising and marketing initiatives.

The study also found that while kids may not currently spend much money, they are very likely to influence their parents' purchasing decisions. Any business that currently sells products or services for children needs to be acutely aware of this. Their website needs to incorporate an appeal to children into the look and feel of the website and the message it conveys.

The implications for the future are equally important. Currently, roughly 64% of the U.S. population uses the Internet. As each succeeding generation becomes a purchasing generation, the sale of online products and services will expand dramatically. Savvy business owners recognize this and adjust accordingly. Remember, the friendly professionals at Heritage Web Solutions are just a phone call away.

Canadian E-Commerce Opportunities

Canadian E-Commerce Opportunities
(11/21/08)

Heritage Web Solutions, one of the premier website design and hosting companies doing business in the United States and Canada, encourages businesses in Canada to seriously consider expanding their online presence and marketing. This recommendation is based on evidence that the Canadian e-commerce sales volume is rapidly expanding and from all indications will continue to do so. The following article appeared in Internetretailer.com’s Daily News on April 25, 2008:

Canadian e-commerce sales grow 26%, led by business-to-consumer sector
Canadian e-commerce grew 26% to C$62.7 billion (US$61.7 billion) in 2007, up from C$49.9 billion the year before. Business-to-consumer sales grew to 38% of Canadian e-commerce in 2007, up from 32% the prior year, according to a new report from Statistics Canada, a government data-collection agency.
Retail sales accounted for 10% of total e-commerce activity. Customers outside of Canada made 19% of the purchases at Canadian e-commerce sites, about the same as in the two prior years.

8% of private sector firms sell online, and e-commerce accounts for nearly 2% of the revenue of those firms, the report says. About 16% of public sector organizations sell online.

Asked about the benefits of doing business online, 30% of private sector firms cited lower costs, up from 27% the prior year; 36% cited reaching new customers, unchanged from 2006; 36% pointed to better coordination with suppliers, customers or partners, up from 35%; 19% said reduced time to market, down from 20%; and 10% cited no benefits, up from 8% the year before.

Statistics Canada compiles the data from surveys of 19,000 organizations. Responding to the survey is mandatory.

In the face of today’s global financial meltdown, more and more, consumers will do their shopping from home where possible. No longer is shopping from home merely a convenience and time saver, but rather a financial necessity and budget saver as well. This has created an even more compelling reason for businesses to promote their products and services through e-commerce. Remember, the friendly experts at Heritage Web Solutions are just a phone call away. Call 866-211-0743, or visit www.heritagewebsolutions.com

Google Adsense - A Great Marketing Solution

Google Adsense Makes Good Cents


Heritage Web Solutions has found a great resource through Google in both advertising of your company, as well as making extra revenue through posting Google ads on your website. It is called Google Adsense.

What is AdSense?

Google AdSense is the program that can give you advertising revenue from each page on your website—with a minimal investment in time and no additional resources.

AdSense delivers relevant text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site and your site content. And when you add a Google search box to your site, AdSense delivers relevant text ads that are targeted to the Google search results pages generated by your visitors’ search request.

Quick and Simple

AdSense takes only minutes to set-up. Just copy and paste a block of HTML and targeted ads start showing up on your website. Since Google provides the ads, you have no advertiser relationships to maintain.

Make Extra Money with a Google Search Box

Place a Google search box on your site, and you can start monetizing the results from web searches. Not only does this keep your users on your website longer—since they can search from where they are—it takes just minutes to implement. And you pay nothing to participate.

Adsense Customer Testimonials

“Instead of spending money to hire an additional sales rep to sell ad banners, Google ads have become a virtual sales tool for us. Now we’re able to reap thousands of dollars in additional advertising revenue each month that we would very likely have missed without Google AdSense." - Robert Hoskins, Editor and Group Publisher, Broadband Wireless Exchange

“At the beginning I was very concerned that I might lose traffic to competitors. I only used AdSense on a limited number of the site’s pages, and I watched the stats very carefully. If the traffic, pages per visitor, or conversion rates dropped I knew I could easily pull the ads...Since implementing AdSense, our ad revenue has increased more than tenfold, and 100 percent of my available inventory is now sold through AdSense." - Vik Kachoria, Entrepreneur, Real Adventure.

Learn More

To learn more, contact a representative of Heritage Web Solutions at 1-866-754-1441 or visit our website at Heritage Web Solutions. Also check out www.hwdtools.com. To sign up today with Google Adsense, go to: Google Adsense.

Beware Well Disguised Credit Card Scam

(12/8/08)

As a public service, this information and warning are being posted by Heritage Web Solutions. The insidious nature of this operation is so cleverly disguised that even the most cautious may be victimized by this scam. Anyone owning a credit card is a potential victim.

Identity theft is an increasingly relevant part of our lives. Just two months ago Countrywide Home Loans had a major security breach in which up to two million home owners had their personal information compromised. Identify theft knows no boundaries. No one is immune from this scourge.

The perpetrators of this particular credit card scam already have much of the personal information of the potential victims, including such things as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, place of residence, phone numbers, etc. There is one tiny, but critical bit of information they don’t have. Their approach is so cleverly disguised that an unsuspecting victim gives it to them.

Here is how the scam unfolds. The scammer calls the victim and identifies himself as calling from the Fraud Department at VISA (or Mastercard, etc.), gives the victim the CC card number, and states that the victim’s card has been flagged for an unusual purchase. The scammer then asks the victim if he made a purchase at XYZ company in Arizona in the amount of xxx dollars. The victim will say “no”, whereupon the scammer says: “This amount has been billed to your card. However, before your next statement, your card will be credited. The statement will be sent to (repeats the victim’s address). Is that correct?” The victim says “yes.”

Now the scam: (remember, the scammer has given the victim enough personal information to allay any concerns that the caller is not who he claims to be, i.e. associated with the Fraud Department). The caller then says, “I need to verify you are in possession of your card”. The scammer instructs the victim to “turn your card over and look for some numbers. There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the Security Numbers. Please read those numbers to me”. If the card holder gives those 3 numbers, the scammer now has the information needed to complete the scam. The scammer now has full control of the credit card.

Heritage Web Solutions hopes this alert has been helpful. Be cautious. If you have any questions or suspicions, call the toll free number on the back of your credit card immediately.

What is a Database Website?

A database-driven website, also called a dynamic website, is an interactive site that gathers information and stores it in a behind-the-scenes database that can then be accessed by either the website owner or the website user. . The storage area for the information is called a database. The need for and use of such websites are constantly increasing. According to Sean Jackson, manager of database development at Heritage Web Solutions, approximately 85% of all of the websites Heritage designs make use of a database.

Database-driven websites are in demand because consumers’ needs for information gathering, access and interaction continue to rise. Every time you order a product, fill out a form or access your membership information you are using a database-driven website.
A few examples of Database Functions:

• Membership Sites - http://www.hwdweb.com/dating.shtml
• Real Estate Listings - http://www.hwdweb.com/real_estate.shtml
• Interactive Calendars - http://www.hwdweb.com/calendar_php.shtml
• Blogs - http://www.hwdweb.com/Blog.shtml
• Online Stores - http://www.hwdweb.com/shopping_cart.shtml
• Product Catalogs - http://www.hwdweb.com/shopping_cart.shtml
• Payment Forms - http://www.hwdweb.com/advanced_payment_form.shtml
• Automobile Dealer Listings - http://www.hwdweb.com/auto_featured_cars.shtml
• Subscription Forms - http://www.hwdweb.com/double_optin.shtml
• Chat room Features - http://www.hwdweb.com/flashchat.shtml
• Secured Applications - http://www.hwdweb.com/secured_form_20_fields.shtml
• Forums and Bulletin Boards - http://www.hwdweb.com/forum_bullitinboard.shtml
• News Feeds - http://www.hwdweb.com/zfeeder.shtml
• Logins - http://www.hwdweb.com/java_script_login.shtml
• Newsletter Sign-ins - http://www.hwdweb.com/double_optin.shtml
In considering the need for a database-driven website, you should assess the type of interaction you want to have with your customers or visitors. If you need to gather, present or display changing information from your website, then you will require a database program to perform those actions.
What To Do Next

As a business owner considering the options to incorporate into your website, take the time to discuss your business needs with a professional firm. Many of your database needs may have already been created for use in multiple websites. With modest revisions, they can be adapted to your needs. This potentially can save you significant time and money. And remember, for all of your database and other website needs, the friendly staff at Heritage Web Solutions are just a phone call away.

Using the BBB to Promote Your Business

In today’s business environment fraught with ever-increasing deceptive business practices, less than desired customer service, and the questionable credibility of many businesses, the benefits of being in good standing with the Better Business Bureau is a must. Businesses enjoying a positive record with the BBB are well positioned to assuage the fears of prospective customers. A case in point is that of Heritage Web Solutions.

Heritage is a website design and hosting company with over 15,000 clients. In its history Heritage has had less than 1% of its clients voice concerns to the BBB. More remarkable, Heritage does not have a single unresolved BBB complaint. This track record pays huge dividends in attracting new customers.

Mark Strong, co-founder and current chief quality officer at Heritage, offers the following insight: “The track record Heritage has with the BBB is a huge plus for our company as we discuss doing business with potential clients. Most consumers have had both good and bad experiences doing business with various individuals and companies. Their unspoken concern is, ‘Are they simply saying the right things to get my business, or do they really perform?’ Getting a link to Heritage’s BBB report and viewing that report from a neutral, third party is huge in setting their minds at ease. We simply love the BBB and the positive impact it has on our business.”

According to the National BBB Organization:
Corporations partner and align with BBB primarily because we share two fundamental beliefs:
• The marketplace has its greatest opportunity to flourish when consumers trust the business community. BBB's mission is to advance marketplace trust.
• Industry self-regulation solutions are preferable to government intervention on marketplace trust issues.
Given this, BBB Corporate Partners provide tangible, financial support for BBB's work to advance marketplace trust. In return, alignment with BBB:

• Demonstrates a company's commitment to a trustworthy marketplace
• Further strengthens its Corporate Responsibility Profile and Brand Reputation, and
• Nourishes the necessary framework to develop new self-regulation solutions
As underscored by Strong, business relationships with the BBB create a win-win situation for both the business and the consumer. As a friendly reminder, remember the helpful folks at Heritage Web Solutions are simply a phone call away.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) has become a vastly popular way for online businesses to generate traffic to their website. All types of businesses, including website design companies such as Heritage Web Solutions, depend on PPC advertising.
PPC are ads that show up as sponsored links on the top and along the right-hand side of the search engine page. An advertiser pays the search engine company every time a searcher “clicks” on their ad. The three main search engines make up 75% of the searches worldwide; Google (47.4%), Yahoo (16%), MSN (11.5%).
Ranking high with PPC in a given keyword is based on how much you are willing to pay per click versus your competing advertisers; the more competitive the keyword the higher the cost per click.
Setting up an Account – To set up an advertising account with the three top search engines, go to the following addresses:
Google: http://www.google.com/intl/en/ads/
Yahoo: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/
MSN: http://advertising.microsoft.com/microsoft-adcenter?s_int=277
Tips for a successful PPC Campaign
1. Your Ad –Include the keyword or phrase that people are searching. Experiment with different ads and determine which ones are most successful.
2. Landing Page – This is the page that people will land on when they click your ad. It should be sales oriented and contain your contact information.
3. Keywords – Use only relevant keywords and phrases which relate to your product or service.
4. Types of Keywords – There are three different ways of listing your keywords. For helpful insight, go to: https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6100&topic=78
5. Ad Positioning –The 1st position is not always the best. It attracts the "auto clickers", people who automatically click on it, even if it is not what they are looking for. These irrelevant clicks are expensive. Positions 3 and 4 are often recommended.
6. Keyword Clean Up—Review the performance of your keywords and delete the non-performers.
PPC advertising can be the most cost-effective source of marketing and pay huge dividends if done correctly. Remember, the friendly experts at Heritage Web Solutions are just a phone call away.

What Makes a Successful Website?

Many people think that if they just set up a website, customers will magically appear and start buying. This is like building a retail store with no windows, doors or signs, on a lot with no roads or sidewalks, and expecting customers to find you and flood you with business. Whether a business designs its own site or engages the services of a professional design firm such as Heritage Web Solutions, great care and thought need to be given in creating an effective website.

An Internet website is an electronic store front, like a physical store front. Set up and marketed right, it will become your most cost-effective way to generate business.
A fully developed and coordinated web marketing program includes a "sales oriented" website, an online vehicle for driving customers to your site, a process of converting them from lookers to buyers and a way of tracking the results.

Five Proven Tips

1. The Front (Home) Page should tell your prospective customers what you can do for them. Give them reasons to buy. Keep your text short and to the point.

2. Less is more. Give your site visitors just enough information to motivate them to call. YOUR MAIN GOAL WITH YOUR WEBSITE IS TO GET THE CUSTOMER TO CONTACT YOU.

3. “Call to Action”: Each web page should have a "call to action", a reason for them to place an order then and there, or to call your phone number, or fill in a form with their name, email address and phone number. An example of this would be a time-sensitive special, or “while supplies last”, etc.

4. Capture their Information: It is important to gather your website visitors’ contact information so you can start developing a relationship. If they don't buy from you today, they may tomorrow. You want to stay in touch. The best way to accomplish this is with an auto-responder program.

5. Colors and Font Styles need to be easy to read and pleasing to the eyes. Avoid being too fancy or cluttered with your pages. Keep them simple and easy to navigate.

Too maximize the effectiveness of your website, you may want to engage the services of a professional. Remember, the friendly staff at Heritage Web Solutions is just a phone call away.

Attracting Customers to Your Website

More and more, businesses are recognizing the necessity of having an online presence. Website design firms, ranging from the small one-person design shops to the large professional design firms such as Heritage Web Solutions, cater to the design needs of today’s business community. Simply having a website, however, is of no consequence, unless visitors actually come to the website.

Attracting customers to your website is imperative to online success. The question is, “How can I accomplish that?”

In ever-increasing numbers, prospective buyers are searching the Internet to find products and services to purchase. These searches utilize one or more “search engines”, with Google (Makes up 46% of searches) and Yahoo (Makes up 22% of searches) being the predominant ones.

The quickest way to receive a high rank is by placing a Google or Yahoo paid advertisement, called Google Adwords or Yahoo's Sponsored Search. These ads show up on the right hand side of the page as “sponsored links.”

Another way to achieve a high ranking is in the natural or organic listings of the search page. This process is cost-free but to get there takes a lot of time, patience and know-how.

Four Proven Strategies:

1. Title lines - Make sure your Title Line, Meta Tag Description and Meta Tag Keywords have the main keywords that you want people to search for.
2. Home Page Keywords - Prominently list the main keywords on your home page starting at the top left-hand side of the page.
3. Keyword Frequency - A search engine looks at how often a
keyword is listed. The keyword needs to appear naturally in the text, not just thrown in multiple times. Search engines eliminate those.
4. Links - Find other websites, that you would consider to be a support to
your website (not a competitor) to link to your site. The more
popular sites you link to, the greater the ranking you'll receive to
your website.

To maximize the effectiveness of your search engine efforts, seeking professional help may pay huge dividends. Remember, the friendly staff at Heritage Web Solutions is just a phone call away.

Tips for Online Stores - From Heritage Web Solutions

With the ever-expanding acceptance of online shopping, is it any wonder that the emergence of websites catering to this trend are multiplying dramatically. Many website design companies, from the small shops to the larger professional design firms such as Heritage Web Solutions, are thriving in this environment.

According to a recent survey conducted by Burst Media, three quarters (75%) of respondents who are web users (age 18 years and older) say they are also online shoppers; three out of five (62%) of such shoppers also say the Internet is their primary source of information when evaluating and comparing products. It is trends like these that have huge significance for today’s business owner.

If you are selling a product and do not have a website with e-commerce (online store) capability, your competition is gaining the upper hand.

Four Proven Tips

1. If you are selling products, make sure your website has an online store. Online stores give your customers the ability to shop and buy right online

2. In directing traffic to your website through Yahoo or Google Paid-Per-Clicks, advertise specific products lines instead of general ads, and have the ad click through to that specific product rather than your home page. People surfing the Internet are looking for specific products, such as Oakley Sunglasses. They are not looking for general eyewear.

3. Make sure you have a clear and attractive picture of your product, with a simple and short description.

4. Consider a short video clip of your product or service. According to
Klipmart, an online delivery and management solutions provider, after surveying 500 online campaigns, reported that visitors on average are watching 21 seconds of a 30 second video. That is a huge percentage in the marketing arena, considering that most visitors move on to the next website within two seconds if they do not find what they are looking for.

In all your e-commerce needs, remember the friendly staff at Heritage Web Solutions is just a phone call away.

The Future of the Internet and Your Business

As a global community, we have evolved into a technology-based world. Rarely do we pay cash or write a check anymore. Our banking transactions have moved to an Internet-based system. More and more of our purchases are made online through EBay, Amazon or directly from an online business. Professional web design businesses such as Heritage Web Solutions have grown enormously to accommodate the need for a professional Internet presence

According to Vinton G. Cerf, one of the inventors of the Internet, “The flexibility we have seen in the Internet is a consequence of one simple observation: the Internet is essentially a software artifact. As we have learned in the past several decades, software is an endless frontier.”

So, what does this all mean for you and your business?

It is imperative that every business have the Internet and an online presence. Additionally, research shows that the average Internet user will decide in the first three seconds whether or not your website has any relevance to them. A website must have eye appeal and immediately convey a fundamental message.

Top Three Considerations:

1. Create a design and layout that are unique and different. Do not go the route of using a cheap template for your website..

2. What is your customer looking for? Determine what it is and show that at the top of your web page, keeping it short and to the point. Less is more. Remember that a visitor will only take three seconds to consider the site. Do not put a lot of dialogue or text on the web pages.

3. You must drive traffic to your website. Just because you have a website on the Internet does not mean that people will find you. Include your website in all of your correspondence. Use Google’s, Yahoo’s and MSN’s “Paid-per-Click” programs that will list your online ad on the first page of a keyword search.

The future of the Internet is the future of business. Businesses that recognize this will be the businesses of the future. Remember, the friendly staff at Heritage Web Solutions is just a phone call away.

Recession: Why Online Businesses Survive

By Brad Stone
Heritage Web Solutions

Recession is generally an ugly word to businesses, but not to Heritage Web Solutions.

As we have watched both our national and global economies slip deeper and deeper into recession, Heritage Web Solutions has not seen any slow-down in its marketing responses. At first we were perplexed why we were not affected by the recessionary forces, but with further investigation we learned that online businesses seem to have a greater resiliency to economic downturns.

Here are some of the main reasons why online businesses do better in tough financial times:

• Online businesses are less expensive to maintain, with overhead costs being very minimal compared to retail businesses. Online costs like hosting and domain registration are typically the only costs to maintain an online business.
• The high payroll costs associated with a retail business are minimal compared to virtually no payroll costs to maintain a web presence. Once set up properly, a website can be easily maintained by the business owner.
• Costs of advertising are far less expensive online than through conventional means of newspaper, yellow pages, TV, radio and direct mail.
• Businesses have a bigger audience online, thus expanding their reach to more potential customers.
• With an online presence, one has the ability to quickly change the marketing copy to ebb and flow with the changes in the financial markets, unlike convention marketing, which takes time to notify newspaper, printers, etc. to change the advertising piece. Instantly, the business can offer a discounted price or a “two for one” special offer to increase new sales.
• Free Advertising through Online Social Networks. The likes of Google’s BlogSpot, Facebook, MySpace, You Tube, all offer free ways to advertise products or services. Social networks are becoming more popular with all age groups. One needs to simply set up an account and start talking about the product or service.

To learn more about an online business, remember Heritage Web Solutions is just a call away. We provide an economical way to put your business online without the high costs associated with the conventional way of doing business.

Visit Heritage Web Solutions at: www.HeritageWebSolutions.com

Who is Heritage Web Solutions

Heritage Web Solutions, located in Provo, Utah designs custom websites and provides other website-related services. Founded in 2001, Heritage Web Solutions has been recognized by Inc. 500 in 2007 and again in 2008 as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. The company will surpass $20,000,000 in revenues for fiscal year 2008. Heritage currently hosts approximately 15,000 website, all of which have been designed by the company.

The history of Heritage Web Solutions began with the vision of its co-founder and CEO, David Aitken. Mr. Aitken was determined to create a company that could provide custom-designed websites to small and medium sized businesses at a price point that they could afford. The price points range from a low of $199 to as high as $15,000, with $900 being the average.

Services provided by Heritage Web Solutions include the hosting of websites, support and modification of existing websites, e-commerce, flash, web-traffic reporting, database development, marketing and search engine optimization, easy interfaces for updating websites, email accounts and other website-related services. Writing services are also available through the company’s professional writing staff. For a nominal fee, the writing staff will interview the business owner and then prepare the written text to be used on the website.

Good customer service is a landmark of Heritage Web Solutions. The Better Business Bureau reports reflect a sterling track record that Heritage has maintained. In spite of the large number of clients--approximately 15,000—there are no unsatisfied complaints with the BBB. To guarantee excellent customer service, Heritage has established a Priority Accounts Department. This department consists of several highly skilled account mangers and designers. They are available at a moment’s notice to engage a concerned client directly to resolve any issues that may arise.

Small business owners of today need not pay thousands of dollars to have the “look and feel” of a larger, more funded competitor. Remember, the friendly staff at Heritage Web Solutions is only a phone call away.

The New Economy

The devastating impact of a “perfect economic storm” has ravaged global markets now for several weeks. Sky-rocketing oil prices of the last several months have recently been joined by the fallout of the mortgage debacle, placing enormous pressures and fear on the global economy, with no relief in sight in the near future. This “perfect storm” has ironically created a new set of opportunities for the entrepreneurial minded. Internet-savvy firms such as Heritage Web Solutions are ideally suited to assist both consumers and businesses to successfully navigate through these troubled economic waters.

What does the typical consumer do in the face of high gas prices and the fear or reality of being counted among the staggering number of unemployed workers? The answer is obvious. More and more, consumers will do their shopping from home where possible. No longer is shopping from home merely a convenience and time saver, but rather a financial necessity and budget saver as well. The “new economy” demands this.

What are the implications this “new economy” has for the business owner? Again, the answer is obvious. For the last several years online shopping has grown at an annual double-digit pace. In 2006 online retail sales totaled $144 billion. This figure grew to $175 billion in 2007. The years that lie ahead will continue to show dramatic increases in online sales. Enormous opportunities lie ahead for businesses with an effective online presence. Business owners without an online presence will become increasingly vulnerable in this “new economy”.

An effective online presence begins with a “pretty face”. First impressions are critical to online sales success. The look and feel of the website must then be complemented by easy navigation, images and copy that are supportive, but not intrusive, effective search engine optimization, and online marketing. The temptation to “do it myself” must be avoided at all costs. The business owner must engage the services of a professional firm that can consult and advise on all aspects of online marketing. The opportunity cost far outweighs the short-term savings. Remember, the friendly staff at Heritage Web Solutions is only a phone call away.

Self Built vs. Professionally Built Websites

There are many options for having a web presence in today’s day and age. These options range from building one’s own website to contracting with a large professional design firm such as Heritage Web Solutions to create the design.

Do-it-yourselfers often access one of several WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs with template designs, quick-fix buttons, and program-generated code that allows them to drag-and-drop images and content into place. These efforts are then called “a web site”.

In conveying an image of professionalism, the old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” could accurately be altered to read “a picture is worth a thousand customers.” A poorly designed, amateur-looking website may in fact do more damage to the image and reputation to a business than having no website at all. “You must have a professional looking website if you want to be taken seriously.” (Entrepreneur, Oct 2003)

For those seeking professional design help, there are many options. As mentioned, large design firms such as Heritage Web Solutions cater to the small to medium sized businesses with limited budgets. There are also a myriad smaller designs firms. Either way, the professional firms are far more capable of creating the professional image a business needs. These professionals understand the latest trends—sites maintain a type of style that is popular across the Web similar to the way fashion designers push fashion trends on the public—the latest coding and programming norms, and they understand the nuances of the programs used to develop a site allowing them to truly design something unique, something tailored to the customer and industry, something that a business owner can be proud of. 

Lance Card, senior design manager at Heritage Web Solutions, sums it up succinctly: “The difference between maintaining a WYSIWYG-developed site versus one developed by a professional is the difference between driving a minivan and a Jaguar. People aren’t going to really notice one more minivan amidst the mass traffic they encounter, but that Jag is going to draw attention, and people are going to remember its clean lines, its sleek design, and its great composition.” Remember, the friendly staff at Heritage Web Solutions is only a phone call away.

Owning Your Own Future

The troubled financial times the economy is currently being battered by may very well be an opportunity in disguise for would-be entrepreneurs. As attested to by the co-founders of Heritage Web Solutions, many successful businesses have been launched during dire financial conditions. The co-founders, Brad Stone, Leah Young, and Mark Strong, had previously owned a residential mortgage lending company. Over the years they experienced several dramatic ups and downs in the mortgage industry. Sensing an impending down turn, they made the decision to break out of the cycle and launch a new business in 2001. That new business, a website design and hosting company, will gross over $20,000,000 in 2008.

As reported by the U.S. Department of Labor for the week ending Oct. 11, the 4-week moving average for unemployment claims was 483,250. This is a 7-year high and represents a 50% increase from the prior year! The short to mid-term future outlook appears bleak. For those who are or will be directly affected by layoffs, can there a silver lining in this? Are there opportunities there for the taking?

Large businesses often enjoy economies of scale, greater purchasing power, and well-established distribution/marketing systems. However, in troubled financial times they also carry enormous fixed over-head, suffocating payrolls and other operating inefficiencies. Would-be entrepreneurs can often create a start-up business with very little capital and minimal overhead. Heritage Web Solutions began on a shoe-string budget of $1000. They hired a part-time marketer and two technicians, brothers David and Jeremy Aitken, who built the first websites in their home in the evening after their regular day-time jobs. Mark Strong has summarized it by saying: “The key to success is mostly a function of courage and sacrifice. Do your homework first, then go for it”

A concluding word of advice from Strong to the aspiring entrepreneur: “You must have a web presence. Whether you work out of your garage or basement, a professionally designed website allows you to compete on image with the big boys.” Remember, the friendly staff at Heritage Web Solutions is just a phone call away.

An Article About Heritage Web Solutions

What follows is an interesting article about Heritage Web Solutions originally seen in the Salt Lake Tribune -

Utah-based Firms among fastest growing

Heritage Web of Provo shot up by 3,400 percent over four years
By Paul Beebe
The Salt Lake Tribune

"How do you manage a company that grew by more than 3,400 percent from 2003 to the end of last year?

A big part of the answer is looking inward for talented leaders instead of bringing outsiders into the company, says Brad Stone, chief executive officer of Heritage Web Solutions, a Provo Web site design and programming business.

Heritage's revenue reached $8.2 million last year after growing by 3,443 percent over the four-year period. The blistering pace put Heritage near the top of Inc. magazine's latest inventory of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States. The list, which usually catalogs 500 companies, was expanded to 5,000 this year.

"It's been a home-grown group of leaders. We've not hired anyone from the outside to our leadership," said Stone, ticking off a list of managers who started at the bottom of the company and worked their way into executive jobs.

The vice president of sales and marketing began as a telemarketer. The vice president of accounting doesn't have an accounting degree; he was hired to compile statistics the company thought it should track. The manager in charge of Web design started as a designer, Stone said.

"I think coming up through the ranks is key for them to think as we think and to make decision the way we would make decisions. You bring someone in from the outside, they have their own style and sometimes baggage that's really not conducive to how we do things."

Heritage got started in 2001. Today the company has about 190 employees. The number moves up and down because Heritage regularly hires - and fires - workers in order to sift out marginal employees.

Heritage first spread the word about its services primarily through direct mail and telemarketing. Today, the company has shifted to the Web, spending about $100,000 a month on a pay-per-click sales campaign."

Heritage Web Solutions offers a number of different completely custom design options with a dedicated team. Call us or visit our website for details.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

The Site Building Process

Designing a website can be an interesting and educational experience. A lot of times we tend to think of it as similar to something else; either print ads, or maybe television, billboards…it has elements of all these things, but it isn’t any of them. It is a unique and appealing medium in which to get marketing message across to your customers, in that it combines the attributes of several of the above media. It is similar to print, yet it serves the same purpose as a billboard in that you only have a few seconds to get their attention and hold it. It also has some similar features to television in that it gives you the ability to show customers flash animation and videos.

Because it combines many different kinds of media yet isn’t like any of them it is hard to know exactly what it is you want to express to your customers and how. Your designer will help you with this to some degree, but to a large extent you have to decide what the message is going to be yourself. You are the one that knows your customers the best, you know what they want, what they are after, why they want it, and how best to sell it to them and have them listen to the message you want to convey. Again, your designer can help you somewhat when it comes to how to convey it, but you must think long and hard on the above matters as they are critical to being a successful sales person for your product and / or your services.

A successful site does a few things and does them well, no matter what the subject matter is or the content.

1. Gains the viewers attention within a few seconds
   
   
2. Lets the viewer know exactly what you are about in a few seconds
   
   
3. Lets the viewer know exactly what you want them to do in a few seconds

If you are doing these things, you are doing what you need to do in order to have a successful site. Then you can concentrate on getting your viewers to stay, and more importantly, to buy.

More On SEO

Because SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is such an important subject, I felt you would benefit from more on this. The following is valuable advice when it comes to SEO, and Heritage Web Solutions is happy to provide it to you.

What is SEO or Search Engine Optimization?

Page optimization is making a website search engine friendly and making the keywords that you would like the search engines to find the site for standout. All search engines have varied algorithms but they are all trying to do the same thing, which is return relevant results to their customers. Even though all the search engines have their own algorithm known only to them they all look at the same things they just apply different weight to how important these things are. The first thing we do is find out what keywords are relevant to the sites content. If a phrase is highly competitive it will take a lot more to get to the top of the listings than if the term is not as competitive.

Page Title

Currently, the title is probably the most significant part of a website as far as search engines are concerned. No search engine optimization process is complete until you've added the keyword to the TITLE tag.

Usually it is best to place the keyword phrase to the beginning of the title. Short titles containing around 3-6 words seem to be generally preferred by search engines. In longer titles, the keyword easily gets lost in the "noise", which causes the ranking of the page to drop.

If you're going for a two or three-word phrase, try to keep it together for maximum effectiveness. "Widgets and Snorks by Joe" beats "Joe is a widgets expert and snorks guru", if the keyword phrase is "widgets and snorks".

It's Not Just For Robots

The most challenging part is creating a title that is visitor-friendly and keyword rich at the same time. Not only is the title seen by those who visit the page, but it is also clearly displayed when the page appears in the search results.

Titles that are simply collections of keywords in bizarre order can get a page to the top of the search results. However, they also tend to keep people from clicking the listing. It's hard, but try to strike a balance between search engines and humans to get the best results.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Design Tips and Tricks part II

The following is a general list of website design tips and guidelines. Many of the following issues have been addressed in previous blog posts, some of them are tips we will go over at greater length in the future. This subject is continued from last week.

1. Above The Fold – Put enough content above the fold so visitors can make a stay or don’t stay decision without scrolling down or visiting more pages. Make sure that your conversion activities, like “add to cart” button, registration forms, etc., are above the fold.
   
   
2. Amount of Content and Images – Be careful to not make your pages too busy, especially the home page. It makes it difficult for your visitors to find what they are looking for. Too much to look at can be very confusing.
   
   
3. Images and Photos – Bad photos work better than clipart anytime. Also, a slightly imperfect photo feels much more real and believable than a glossy studio shot.
   
   
4. Phone Numbers – Use of phone numbers, and especially toll free numbers, adds to your traffic conversions in several ways. First, some consumers would rather just call than fill out a form. These calls will typically have a higher conversion rate of viewer to buyer than just filling out forms. Secondly, consumers will trust a website much more if it has a phone number prominently displayed. Put the phone number on every page and make it as easy as possible for the customer to see it.
   
   
5. Error Free – Make sure that your web pages are error free. Nothing turns a visitor off more than a broken page or a form error. With a click of the mouse they will be gone. So test every aspect of your web page functionality before opening the door for business.

These are just general rules and may or may not apply to your site design. Feel free to utilize any and all tips from these to help in developing a successful and beautiful website.

Heritage Web Solutions offers a number of different completely custom design options with a dedicated team. Call us or visit our website for details.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Design Tips and Tricks

The following is a general list of website design tips and guidelines. Many of the following issues have been addressed in previous blog posts, some of them are tips we will go over at greater length in the future.

1. Content Relevance – All of the content and images should be absolutely relevant and focused to the task at hand. Don’t confuse your viewers on what you want them to pay attention to and do.
   
   
2. Clarity of Purpose – Related to content relevance. Content must be organized so it’s very easy for the visitor to figure out what to look at, in what order, and how to take the conversion step when they are ready.
   
   
3. Visibility – Make sure the critical elements in your creation are visible to almost all visitors, above the fold without having to scroll down. Keep them inside the upper 300 pixels of the page. This way you are making sure that 98% of your visitors will be able to see and act upon critical elements. Remember that the first screen of visible content a visitor sees is what they make their first decision on. This happens in those very first critical seconds of viewing your site. Your initial screen shot is the one that needs to convince them not to leave.
   
   
4. Font Style and Size – Never use a font style and size that is hard to read. Never use a font size smaller than 10 point. If you are targeting older adults or young children, use a much larger font size for easier reading. Use web-safe font styles that most computers will have.
   
   
5. Left vs. Centered – Avoid centering text, with the possible exception of one-liner headlines. All text should be flush left. It is harder to read a series of centered text vs. a series of flush left lines of text.
   
   
6. Color – Using the right color scheme is important to the mode and image you are trying to convey. Avoid using white text on a colored background as it is difficult to read. The best practice is to use a white background, or a slightly gray one, that way the majority of your text appears on a color that is easier for the human eye to distinguish text against. Select multiple colors that complement each other and do not look out of place. Also avoid using dark or brightly colored backgrounds because they are too hard to read against. Blue is a favorite color of about 80% of men and 50% of women.

I’ll have more on these critical subjects on Tuesday. To my readers in the United States, have a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend.

Heritage Web Solutions offers a number of different completely custom design options with a dedicated team. Call us or visit our website for details.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

More On Flash And What It Can Do For You

As I mentioned yesterday, Flash can be an attractive and attention getting part of your website design. A Flash intro can introduce your customers to a world of possibilities – as long as it is not too long. If you have an intro that drags on and on most likely the customer is going to leave. One of the most important things to do when you are designing your Flash intro with the designer is make sure there is an option to skip the intro altogether. If this option isn’t present it tends to irritate your viewers and you will likely lose quite a few of them before they even enter the site itself.

Many things can be displayed in a properly done Flash introduction. It can act as a slide show for photos, a showcase of your work, a list of possible services, a list of testimonials for your goods and/or services. However, I can’t emphasize enough the point that you must optimize the intro. It has to load quickly, be viewed quickly and grab the attention of your viewer immediately. If it doesn’t load quickly people will get impatient and skip it. If it isn’t easy to see quickly they will skip it and move on.

I’d like to emphasize that you should not use too much Flash. A little Flash here and there goes a long ways. To have a Flash intro and a Flash banner is alright, just avoid making it too long. I highly recommend Flash as an attention getting device; it just needs to be within reason. There are also many ways of using Flash within the body of your site to gain attention to particular items you wish to highlight. Your professional Flash designer can help you with the implementation of any ideas you have. A subtle yet powerful technique is to have something change or appear when you roll over that section and/or link.

Heritage Web Solutions offers a number of different completely custom Flash options with a dedicated Flash team. Call us or visit our website for details.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Flash - Helpful Tips

Flash can be an interesting and attention getting part of your website design. There is no doubt that a properly managed flash banner or intro can be critical in getting your customers attention. There are some mistakes that can be made and we will go through those here. Also, determining what you really need in flash as compared to what you may think looks ‘cool’ can be the tricky part and we’ll examine some practical aspects of that.

A flash banner, a moving flash area at the top of your site, can be a great attention grabber. If it is implemented correctly it can be entertaining and fascinating to the viewers of your site, help improve the ‘stickiness’ of your site (stickiness is the term to describe how well your site is at keeping viewers – how long they stay and what pages they are staying longest on. A page that keeps visitors longer is considered to be very ‘sticky’) and get across a marketing message or important information. Having abrupt, flashing, brightly colored banners is usually not a good idea, but visually pleasing and stimulating banners can be quite attractive and can distinguish you from your competition. Most of the time people enjoy looking at quick flash banners that don’t distract them from the reason they are at your site to begin with. Large, slow loading banners are a mistake as they do exactly that – load slowly and distract from the purpose of your site; get people to buy your product and/or services. A flash introduction to your page, or flash ‘intro’ can be a great way to do exactly the same thing and add some showmanship to your site – again, do not distract those people from what you want them to do, just provide them with some clever entertainment and way to get some important information from you. The same rule of thumb goes for flash intros as it does for flash banners. Do not have a slow loading, distracting flash intro that takes people a long time load and isn’t relevant to why they’ve come to your site to begin with.

Heritage Web Solutions offers a number of different completely custom flash options with a dedicated flash team. Call us or visit our website for details.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

A List of Important Design Tips

I want to reiterate some important design tips – these will help you with visitors, making sure not only is your site easy to understand, it is desirable to stick around on and for your visitors to actually read your content and, hopefully, buy something from you. Below are things you need in order for your customers to have a good experience on your site –

• FAST load times for optimized loading; keep them interested and moving forward in order to keep them on your site.

• Easy to understand purpose – why are they at your site? Make it easy for your customer to understand what it is you want them to do. Do you want them to buy? Make it easy for them and they will.

• Easy to use navigation with clear links to content they are interested in. If you have a page dedicated to information about how to contact you, it would be good to have that link say, “contact us” rather than “click here”.

• Make sure the colors you are using for your site and your logo are appealing and make sense for the industry you are in and are optimized for the marketing of your product.

• Optimize your written content and the look of your site to grab people’s attention immediately and keep them there. Also keep in mind with the written content that people need to read it, understand it, and it needs to be friendly for the search engines as well. Your site needs to be custom – a site that is unique and inventive.

• Give your visitors a clear call to action once they are on your site. As stated above, make it easy for your customers to know exactly what it is they are supposed to do once they actually hit your site. Make it easy for them to spend money with you.

• Market your site every way you can. Bring attention to it, shout it out to the world so everyone knows it is there. If you don’t bring attention to it, your site will sit there like a lump on a log and do nothing.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

More Common Site Design Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

You’ve spent a lot of time designing your site and marketing it. It is hard work to market your site and has probably cost you a lot of time and a lot of money. You are getting visitors now – and no one stays to see what you have to offer/sell/say. There are a lot of reasons this might be so but today I want to go into a common mistake that costs people a lot of visitors – slow loading pages. The number one reason people get annoyed and leave a page is because it takes forever to load. Making them wait for graphics isn’t going to wow them; it is going to irritate them.

Graphics aren’t the only thing that can cause your site to load slowly though, and are also not the only thing that can annoy your visitors to the point where they want to leave. Slow loading and distracting flash banners and entry pages, music that you force them to listen to and slow loading java scripts are all killers and will turn your viewers/buyers away quickly. Unfortunately we have social networking sites these days like MySpace that have made these kinds of things popular – believe me there is a world of difference between a MySpace page and a page you are using for commercial purposes. Under no circumstances should you use annoying animated gifs or bright and flashing Flash banners – nothing screams out “leave here immediately” more.

Don’t mistake me, MySpace can be a great tool and can be a form of marketing for you in itself. You can and should make a MySpace page to network and promote your regular website. I would have it designed so it matches the look of your webpage, but don’t base your website design on the design of a MySpace page! Looking through MySpace pages you can see in any five pages pretty much every violation of good website design. Why spend all that time and money to get people to your site so you can then hold them captive and make them watch something that you think is great but they may or may not is interesting. Just let people get on to the business of buying something from you. Make it easy for your customers to spend money with you.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Avoiding Common Mistakes in Marketing Your Website

Today’s topic is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while. Looking around the web at different professional sites and keeping track of trends is sometimes a full time job in itself. I’ve seen a lot of sites out there and many different approaches to marketing them. One thing I see over and over that makes me want to leave a site immediately is obvious misspellings. Nothing turns me off faster and makes me trust someone less. Why would I trust someone to perform a service for me or sell me a product if they can’t even take the time to spell check their website content?

Grammar and punctuation mistakes can be forgiven. Much of the time I don’t even notice them until or unless I’ve read the material several times. However, misspelled words stick out like a sore thumb. They are distracting and unprofessional. Whenever I see them I think to myself how sad it is that the person doesn’t care enough about their reputation or their customers returning to take the time out to use spell check.

Use a spell check in your word process program, hire a professional writer or just take your time and check each word, but whatever you do, avoid misspelled words on your site. There is absolutely no faster way to turn your customers away from you than to have blatant misspellings. At least let someone else look at the text you’ve written and proof read it for you. There’s absolutely no way you can build credibility and a reputation for reliability unless you show you’re willing to go to the work of making sure the text on your site is correct. After all, if you go to a site and the first thing you see is “Welcom too are websid” believe me it says worlds about the care you’ve taken and what a customer can expect from you. Leaving a detail like that unfixed can make someone believe you are trying to run a scam or rip them off. Heritage Web Solutions employs a staff of full time writers who do nothing but spell check our customer’s content and our own website content as well. This is the least I can recommend to someone wishing to look and sound professional to their customers and site viewers.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Marketing Your Website - Tips and Tricks

There are definitely a myriad of ways to market your website and your web based business. Some of those you might overlook because you may not think of a website as part of a traditional media campaign. Some of the least expensive and yet surprisingly effective ways of marketing your sites are some of the oldest in the book. Some things you can do that are commonly overlooked –

Make sure your website address is on all brochures, business cards, letterhead, email signatures etc. Basically anywhere you print your business address and phone number needs to have your web address as well.

If you have a yellow page ad, newspaper ad, TV and/or radio ads…all these should include your web address. Television and radio ads can be very effective especially in a local market. Newspaper definitely shouldn’t be ignored, and a yellow page ad can often be invaluable.

If you don’t have one already, develop some kind of free gift that you can give to your customers that has your web address on it. Pens, key-chains, refrigerator magnets, plastic squeeze bottles, hats, bags – a nice item that can be fairly inexpensive if you order them in bulk and has great keeper value are small thumb drives. Give these out at every opportunity and have your branding and web address all over it.

Develop magnetic signs and/or vinyl lettering for your vehicle with your web address and your branding on it. Not only does it get your branding and your web address out there, it gives you an opportunity to speak to people about it if you do it uniquely enough to grab people’s attention. It also might give you the ability to deduct business expenses involving your automobile. Check with your tax professional for details.

Ads on local movie theatres ‘between show’ slides can have a surprising return if the ad is effectively done. Other ways to get your site out there are billboards, mobile billboards, flyers, grass roots word of mouth campaigns, ads in trade magazines or specialty magazines can be effective too. The bottom line to advertising and marketing is doing whatever gives you the best return on investment. Keep track of where your customers come from in order to decide in the future where your precious advertising dollars and energy need to go in order to get the best return on your investment. It takes a lot of hard work and energy to make a business work and a website is no different.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

Email Marketing - What Software Should I Use?

E-mail marketing is a great way of reminding your customers who you are, getting your brand in front of them, providing them with useful information and helpful tips as well as great deals you might be offering. How do you implement it though? That’s where a great software program can be invaluable. Heritage Web Solutions has an easy to use and easy to understand piece of software we can install on your site called the “The Stay-N-Touch”. After researching different options out there on the web I would have to say this is definitely the standard that all software should be judged by.

The Stay-N-Touch software tested successfully with 300,000+ mailing lists. All known e-mail lists file formats are supported so compatibility isn’t an issue. The Stay-N-Touch Marketing program includes advanced reports on mailing campaigns, click-throughs, new subscribers and more stats. It also gives you the ability to create custom forms for any mailing group, use custom fields, and custom design- the advanced online editor allows you to build cutting-edge newsletters and emails using both HTML and Text.

I will list the qualities of the Stay-‘n’-Touch and say that any software you decide to go with to help you with your e-mail marketing program needs to have these functions to be of true use to you.

• Create and manage highly targeted mailing campaigns
  Mailing list builder, newsletter editor, subscription forms, auto responders, tracking, reports and more. All in one place.
  
  
• Customization and Personalization
  Send personalized and customized emails to all recipients, groups or to custom mix of mailing groups.
  
  
• Custom fields
  Create multiple custom fields and use them in the newsletter body, mailing lists and subscription forms.
  
  
• Advanced tracking and reports
  Track mailing campaigns, click-throughs, and get detailed mailing reports.
  
  
• Automatic bounced emails
  The system will automatically move bounced email addresses to a special folder. You can make these emails active again or delete at any time.
  
  
• Multi-language support
  Supports over 50 main world languages. These include European, Asian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and other languages.
  
  
• Advanced auto responder
  Create a series of unlimited follow-up auto responder tasks. Choose basic, multiple or mailing campaign auto responders. Choose a start point: any date/time or deliver emails once a user joins your mailing list.
  
  
• Full support of huge mailing lists
  This software tested successfully with 300,000+ mailing lists.
  
  
• Easy-to-use interface makes administration a snap

For more information as well as a complete demonstration, please visit http://stayntouchmarketing.com or call your customer service representative at 1-866-211-0743.

E-mail Marketing - Tips On a Successful Campaign

You’ve decided on an e-mail marketing campaign through your double opt-in, offering bonus services, discounts, helpful information and tips to all your customers. This can be very successful or it can be downright frustrating, and a lot of what happens with it depends on you and avoiding some common pitfalls that can take the energy out of your campaign before it even begins.

One of the first things you want to do make sure you’ve put an obvious “call to action” on your e-mail that cries out to the customer as soon as they open your e-mail; this is the same concept we talked about when creating your website. You want to make it as easy as possible for your customer to buy from you so in order to capture their attention you need to provide them with an easy to understand opportunity to buy as soon as they see your message. If a customer doesn’t see what you want them to do they usually won’t search; they will close that email and go on to the next one. Also make it easy for them to understand what they are getting out of doing what you’ve asked them to, otherwise, what is their motivation?

Another tip is to make the e-mail (if it is an HTML based e-mail especially) consistent with your corporate look, website and other marketing, no matter what media it is. This helps with branding and helps your customer understand immediately it is message from you. Inconsistency in marketing messages can look ‘messy’ and can have a detrimental effect on the message you are trying to convey as well as an overall harmful effect on your corporate image. It makes you look unprofessional, inconsistent and can portray you as an entity that can’t be trusted. A unified look in marketing efforts provides instant branding as well as a sense of security in the reliable look.

You should also be consistent with the times you send out e-mail messages. If you do it too frequently you will run the risk of alienating your customers, but not often enough and they forget who you are. There is no real rule about it but putting your name out there in front of your customers at least once a month should be considered your minimum. Any other kind of time line will have to be determined by you and how often you feel your customers need to hear from you or can tolerate yet another marketing message.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

E-mail Marketing - How To Do It Right

As I mentioned in Friday’s web log, E-mail marketing is an extremely efficient means of keeping yourself in touch with your customers. You can use it to give your customers helpful hints and tips, answer frequently asked questions, as well as provide you with opportunities to get your products out there in front of your customer base, introduce new products and generally keep your brand in front of them in a helpful, non-intrusive and generally inexpensive way. But how do you get that list of customer e-mails to begin with? If you’ve sold to them, as part of the process you can ask them for their e-mail address, but it is critical that you ask the customer if it is OK for you to send them e-mail messages from time to time, otherwise you run the risk of alienating them. But how do you get e-mail addresses from people who haven’t purchased from you but may be interested in what you have to offer? There is a simple way that is easy to implement on your site and relatively inexpensive; it is called confirmed subscription opt-in, or, the “double opt-in”.

Confirmed subscription opt-in or double opt-in is a method for those seeking information from you to confirm with you that it is actually them asking to be included on your mailing list. The customer or potential customer fills out a short form on your website asking to be included in your mailing list. Once they submit the form, the form sends them an email that they have to respond to in order to complete the subscription. They are confirming, twice, that they actually want to receive the e-mails from you that you send out, be it informational, marketing or otherwise. This prevents anyone from posing as someone else and entering their email address as one that wishes to receive the information you send to your email list, be it marketing information, FAQ’s, a newsletter or sales opportunities. The potential abuser may put in a second parties email but doesn’t control that person’s email address therefore eliminating this particular scam. Not only does it confirm that they want to receive information, it is also a way of confirming that someone is likely to spend money with you and is genuinely interested in your products or services.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

E-mail Marketing - What It Is

E-mail marketing is an enormously effective tool to keep yourself in touch with your customers when utilized in a legal (non-spam) way, and can benefit your customers as well as provide you with opportunities to get your products out there in front of your existing customer base, introduce new products and generally keep your brand in front of them in a positive and cost effective way. Depending on how effective and helpful you make the message you’re trying to get across you can significantly increase your bottom line. In reality e-mail marketing is so inexpensive even if it doesn’t have a significant return; almost any amount of return becomes worthwhile.

The great thing about e-mail marketing campaigns is it doesn’t matter what size business you are, it is just as effective for a small business as it is for a large business; in fact, sometimes it benefits a small business considerably more. A good e-mail opt-in database can be worth infinitely more than what you spend on it to begin with as it can be used in so many different ways. Not only can you use it to get a marketing message across, you can use it as an ambassador of good will to your customers, sending them out helpful hints and tips, as well as utilizing it to follow up with customers who have purchased from you lately. It can have many, many different uses. However, with all that said let’s examine and define exactly what a decent e-mail marketing campaign is, and what it isn’t.

Wikipedia defines E-mail marketing as –

E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. However, the term is usually used to refer to:

• Sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business,
• Sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately,
• Adding advertisements to e-mails sent by other companies to their customers, and
• Sending e-mails over the Internet, as e-mail did and does exist outside the Internet (e.g., network e-mail and FIDO).

You can find that definition at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_marketing. This definition pre-supposes that you are not e-mailing people that haven’t asked to be included in your mailing list. Sending unsolicited e-mail is called ‘spam’ - so what is the difference between e-mail marketing and spam? E-mail spam is defined loosely as unsolicited, bulk, commercial e-mail. Most people find e-mail spam to be distasteful at best.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

What Your Website Can Do For You

Your website can and should increase your bottom line. After all, the reason you have a website is to increase your marketing opportunities and increase your profit. If you’ve taken advantage of great design and marketing tips your site is going to give you a plethora of opportunities to increase your bottom line and with a properly managed contact database increase your customer contact and repeat customer prospects. Let’s face it, the internet is definitely here to stay and will be around for a long time to come; if you don’t have a site these days it can seriously hamper your marketing and sales. The internet is and will remain an essential part of marketing and sales for the foreseeable future. The internet is a tool you can use to increase sales, reduce your overall marketing budget, it can be used as part of your customer service arsenal and actually reduce costs by providing opportunities to your customers to buy online, answer frequently asked questions and even give them an opportunity to put themselves on your mailing list. Your website is a marketing rep/customer service/sales person that doesn’t sleep and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. If a customer wants to buy from you sitting in their pajamas in their front room at 3:00 AM in the morning then they can do it, giving your customers unparalleled convenience.

So in short, a website can;

• Increase your bottom line by
• Increasing sales and sales opportunities
• Provide you with marketing opportunities
• Increase customer contact
• Reduce your overall marketing budget yet provide better opportunities to market your goods
• Provide your customers with incredible convenience and
• Provide them with great customer service by giving them instant access to information at any time of the day or night

So exactly how much does your site increase your bottom line? That depends on you. How much do you bring attention to it? How often do you give the link out to your customers and direct them there for sales and frequently asked questions? How much your site benefits you will depend on how much you utilize it and take advantage of its customer service opportunities.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

How to Protect Your Content

There are some very easy ways to protect your website from someone illicitly copying it and using it for their own. The first step is to create a back up copy of your site and burn it to a DVD or CD. This can be used as an evidentiary backup copy in case you ever need to use it as support in some kind of dispute. This is a generally wise idea anyway as you want to make sure you preserve your site without relying on electronic copies. I would recommend making a physical copy of the site at least once a month but no less than every 3 months. Having a physical copy of it in your hand can be extremely valuable.

Another way of protecting your content on your site is to make sure it is registered at the U.S. Copyright office. This is relatively inexpensive (about $35.00) and relatively easy as well. Go to the U.S. Copyright website for instructions on how to do this. This is probably one of the must secure ways to protect your content as well as one of the surest.

These are the only ways of protecting text, besides keeping your ear to the ground and paying attention to any and all possible competitors. That can be a lot of work. With protecting images you have a few options. One of the best is adding a digital watermark. There are software programs out there that will help you do this and it is a pretty sure way of keeping track of your images online and making sure no one is stealing them for their own uses. Doing a search in Google or another search engine will be sure to net you some very useful results.

Most importantly, your content should change from time to time just to make sure everything is fresh and that your buyers have a motivation to come back. Return visits and buyers are the important thing. You want to capture your customer’s attention, hold it and turn them into raving fans and buyers of your products.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.

More on U.S. Copyright Law

You’ve worked hard to build your website. Long hours spent coming up with the perfect text, taking pictures of your business, working with the designer to build the site, finding great ways to market it. It’s been a long road but worth it as it is paying off in return business now.

Then one day, someone says, “Hey, I went to thisonesite.com and it looks a lot like yours. Is that your site too?” You go to the website and find that not only does it look like yours, but they have copied your text and even taken some of your pictures. Imagine how upset you would be! Instead of going to work on their own and doing their own research and work they’ve essentially taken what you’ve created and “borrowed” it for their own profit. You would be burning up!

Luckily, you can protect yourself against this type of theft. For one thing, as discussed in Friday’s blog article as soon as you put down your text in tangible form, either electronic or written, it is protected under U.S. Copyright law. The exact definition of what is protected by Copyright is as follows: (Taken directly from http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf)

“Copyright protects “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device. Copyrightable works include the following categories:

1 literary works

2 musical works, including any accompanying words

3 dramatic works, including any accompanying music

4 pantomimes and choreographic works

5 pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works

6 motion pictures and other audiovisual works

7 sound recordings

8 architectural works

These categories should be viewed broadly. For example, computer programs and most “compilations” may be registered as “literary works”; maps and architectural plans may be registered as “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.”

These definitions certainly go a long ways towards protecting your site content; however you can and probably should go to extra lengths to protect your content. It isn’t hard to do so and is very much worth it in the long run. These days, if you publish to the web, you can almost guarantee that at some point someone will attempt to “borrow” your content.

I’ll have more on this important subject tomorrow.

For more information, please visit http://www.heritagewebdesign.com or call 1-866-211-0743.